Cousins
by chuochuo
Summary: Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Itachi. From their first meeting to the Uchiha Massacre. AU. NOT Yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

Hello :) This is a story of two Uchiha cousins, Obito and Itachi. I first planned to center the story around Obito and Kakashi, but Itachi won't let me! Arrggggg!

Anyway, here it goes.

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><p><strong>Cousin-Sitting<strong>

Itachi was not sure since when he grew to expect and long for his distant older cousin Obito's visit. But from what he overheard from his mother's chattering to another relative one afternoon, Obito first came to babysit him when he was only about a year old. The loudmouth, very un-Uchiha boy was barely ten at the time. As he was an orphan and thus was raised by the clan as a whole – which meant he was often neglected and uncared for due to diffused responsibility – Mikoto thought it was a duty as the clan-head's wife to look after him. Thus she asked him to babysit her firstborn son with a promise of small sum of pocket money when she spotted him rambling aimlessly around the complex. It wasn't a babysitting per se, as Mikoto didn't leave the house but merely went about tending to the house chores while Obito kept an eye on his charge in the baby room.

Obito was thrilled to be given such an important job as watching over the clan-head's son. Sure, it was like other babysitting jobs he had done on D-rank missions over his first year as a Genin, but still. He was sure nobody, not even the stuck-up Kakashi, was entrusted with a clan's heir, especially a clan as famous and powerful as Uchiha. Besides, he loved babysitting. Not that he would tell that to anyone.

"Tousan!"

Obito's attention snapped back at the baby's shrieking voice.

"No no, it's Obito nii-san. Can you say nii-san Itachi? Can you say nii-san?" Obito hold out his finger for the younger Uchiha to grab.

"Kaasan!" Perhaps having sensed that he had made a mistake, Itachi tried another word of his limited vocabulary.

"No, now you even got the gender wrong. Say, nii-san. Nii, and san. Nii-san."

"Nii?"

"That's right!" Obito laughed, tickling the baby's belly.

Although he would not remember later on, at that moment Itachi, in his young baby mind, decided that he liked that laugh and that wide grin, which were so different from the stoic, emotionless expressions he usually got from the grownups around him. He liked his nii-san.

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It didn't take long for Mikoto to realize that Itachi took a great liking of that particular cousin. He rarely cried or fussed – not that he did either of the two frequently, he was much too quiet and reserved for his age – when Obito was around, and would always smile when he spotted the vibrant boy come into his view. Thus Mikoto frequently asked Obito to come over, and soon trusted him enough to actually leave her son to his care when she needed to go out.

Although Fugaku wasn't particularly thrilled about his son spending time with the boy who had been practically marked as a failure and even a disgrace to the Uchiha name, Mikoto persuaded him that there was no harm done. Besides, Itachi seemed to have problem socializing with other kids of his age. Why deprive him of his only source of non-adult companionship?

Obito, who was a little lonely without anyone to call his family, grew fond of Itachi pretty quickly as well. Thus throughout Itachi's short life, the scene of his cousin barging into the house at random time with random excuses became an expected surprise.

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><p>Itachi perked up at the loud noise of somebody opening and darting through the gate of the house. He heard his mother replying to hurried greetings. Any moment now….<p>

"Oi, Chibi-Tachi!"

Itachi stood up from where he had been drawing on a sketchbook and dashed out to the front porch. As expected, he was greeted by his favorite cousin with his trademark ear-to-ear grin.

"Nii-san!" Itachi ran and hug Obito's legs. With Obito promoted to Chuunin, he now had less and less time to hang out with his younger cousin. Mikoto smiled warmly at her son's rare display of emotion. Obito goodheartedly laughed and ruffled the jet black hair.

"Hey kiddo. It's been a while, huh?"

"Uh-huh. What are we gonna do today? Tell me stories!"

"Roger that! But first say bye-bye to Mommy."

"Bye-bye, Mommy." Itachi looked up and waved his small hand.

"Bye-bye, Itachi. I'll be home before dinner. Thank you so much for doing this, dear."

"No problem, Ma'am. You know Itachi and I are like brothers!"

Mikoto laughed, waved her hand at both boys and left. If it hadn't been the adamant refusal from Fugaku, Mikoto would have adopted Obito as her son long ago. She loved the kindhearted, goofy and sometimes reckless boy. Too bad he wasn't up to Fugaku's standard. But really, could _anyone_ live up to his standard? She could not even begin to imagine what kind of expectations and demands he would impose on their son when he grew older.

Miokto quickly shook her head, as if to chase away her worries. Today was a rare hang-out day with her friends. Her rather dominating husband was away, her son was in good hands, and her friends were waiting for her. She would not let her worries ruin her day.

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"…and then that bandit bastard was like _Wham!_ And I threw a kunai just in time to set off the trap, and he was caught like a fish in a net! Ooooh, you shoulda seen his face! It was priceless!"

Itachi giggled at his cousin's epic-sounding tale. Obito was acting out the story of his latest mission outside Konoha.

"I want to be a ninja when I grow big!" Itachi declared.

"Huh, so you're gonna follow your nii-san's steps?"

"Uh-huh. Teach me ninja stuff!"

"All right! I'll make you the best ninja Konoha has ever seen! Okay, let's go out to the yard. I'll show you how to aim and throw."

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Obito made a small pile of cobbles and picked up one. Itachi seemed a little bit put out at that he wouldn't be throwing real kunai or shuriken, but Obito was not going to let his baby cousin touch anything sharp.

"Okay, let's see how well you can hit that tree over there. First, watch."

Obito threw the stone in a deliberately slow motion. The stone hit the center of the tree, leaving a small mark. Itachi watched intently, seemingly trying to record every movement in his young mind.

"Now, look straight at the tree and throw."

Itachi picked up a stone, held it tightly, and then threw with all his strength. The stone flew past the tree. Itachi's shoulders sagged in disappointment, but Obito laughed and ruffled his hair affectionately.

"Wow, you're good! I bet I couldn't throw half as close to the target when I first tried this. Here, try again." Obito handed Itachi another cobble. And so they practiced until the small pile was disappeared and Itachi finally succeeded in hitting the tree.

"Yosh! I told you you'd make it!" Obito jumped up and threw his fist in the air, rejoicing in his baby cousin's success. Itachi blushed at the compliment. "We should celebrate this. Where do you want to go? Do you wanna eat something? Oh how about dango? There's a new dango shop in the marketplace and I heard it's really good!"

"What's dango?"

"Wha-what? You've never had dango before?" Obito asked, befuddled at the innocent question. When Itachi nodded his head, wondering if he had said something wrong, Obito grabbed Itachi's hand and headed toward the gate. "That's it, we're having dango today. Nobody should go without knowing the awesomeness of dango!"

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A while later, Itachi found himself walking down the street, holding a stick of three colorful dango's. Obito was munching on his and urged him to try. Itachi looked at the gooey-looking balls skeptically and took a tentative bite at the topmost dango. Then, another. And another. Obito laughed at how his cousin devoured the entire dango in a matter of a minute, his mouth full of the sticky goodness. Frankly speaking, he looked adorable.

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"Obito!"

When the Uchiha boys looked up, they saw a girl with soft brown hair and purple markings on her face running towards them. Instantly Obito stiffened and squirmed. Itachi looked up at him questioningly.

"Hey, Rin."

"Hey. Who's this?" Rin asked, squatting down to get to Itachi's eye level. "I didn't know you had a younger brother."

"He's my cousin, Itachi. But he's technically my brother, right Itachi?"

Itachi made a small nod and hurriedly hid behind Obito's leg.

"Aww, don't be shy Chibi-Tachi! Rin's my teammate. She's not gonna hurt you."

But Itachi did not come out of his hiding spot, and pulled on Obito's pants leg in a silent plea to go home. He did not like meeting new people, even if he was a little curious about his favorite cousin's teammate.

"It's all right Obito. See you tomorrow?"

"Oh right… Mission."

"Please don't tell me you forgot about it _again._ Anyway, bye-bye Itachi-kun. Hope we'd meet again! Obito, don't be late! I heard the client's really cranky."

"Yeah, yeah."

With that, Rin turned around and went down the street. After he was sure the kunoichi was far gone, Itachi let go of Obito's pants leg and took his hand instead. Obito mock-sighed.

"Chibi-Tachi, what am I gonna do with you?"

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><p>R&amp;R please! :)<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: It's been such a long time since the last update... to be honest, I stopped following Naruto manga quite a while ago, so I have no idea how the canon story has been unfolding since the shinobis got together for the big war.**

**But I just went through my fanfics saved on my drive and found this chapter, which is an AU story of how Obito survives the fatal mission where he originally dies and gives his eye to Kakashi. Actually I've been waiting for the muse to strike me again so I can write a few more chapters about the worry-free, happy-as-bluejay days of young Obito and toddler Itachi before I post this chapter. But as I'm not sure when that will happen, I just decided to go ahead and post this chapter. There are two more chapters I've already written, but they take place way in the future (it's about the Uchiha-massacre) so I'm not sure if I should just post them or wait and write a few chapters to connect the two time periods.**

**Anyway, enough of my blah-blahs. Here's the story :)**

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><p><strong>The Cave-In<strong>

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><p>The war was running towards the climax. Itachi shuddered at the memory of last night.<p>

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><p><em>Loud noises, somebody's grief-ridden cry, and running footsteps.<em>

_"Fugaku-sama! A messenger from Hokage came. Asako-san was killed in action." Somebody – Itachi recognized him as a police officer working under his father – rushed into the house and said. Fugaku only nodded his head grimly._

_"I'll go see her family myself."_

_After Fugaku left with the policeman, Mikoto picked Itachi up and hugged him without any words. She was shaking, and Itachi felt like his whole world was vibrating, about to shatter into million pieces._

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><p>Itachi pulled his knees toward his chest and rocked himself back and forth on the porch.<p>

Obito nii-san was supposed to be back two days ago. The four-year-old was worried. Whatever this 'war' was, he hated it. It killed so many people, it took away his only brother, and it was not giving him back.

_Give him back, he's my nii-san,_ Itachi demanded silently, furiously. He missed the nii-san's loud laugh, hand tousling his hair, black eyes twinkling with mischief, and bright yell of his nickname.

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><p>Team Minato dashed to their village at the maximum speed they could manage without stirring the bloody teenager too much. Kakashi ran in front, leading the way and constantly looking out for potential danger, while Minato followed closely with unconscious Obito in his arms. Rin took the rear, tears freely flowing and wetting the purple marks on her cheeks.<p>

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><p><em>"Kakashi… I never got you a-anything for you making Jounin, huh…? Ta… take my Sharingan. I'm gonna die here bu-"<em>

_"Shut up!"_

_Kakashi shouted, his lone eye searching desperately for any solution, any answer, any help, anything. Rin was shaking and crying. Angry, shocked, the young genius threw the kunai he got from his sensei at the rock slowly killing his teammate. Killing his _friend_._

_With a gush of wind, Minato appeared where the kunai landed after bouncing off from the rock. His eyes grew wide as he quickly registered the scene. He performed a jutsu he learned – ironically – from an Iwa shinobi, turning the weight of the rock near zero. He threw it away, and quickly went to his student's side._

_"Rin!" Minato shouted._

_Rin woke up from her daze at suddenly seeing her sensei and hurried toward her teammate. She tried not to panic at how bloody and disfigured he looked and concentrated on stopping the blood flow._

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><p>Kakashi's eyes lit up at the sight of the familiar gate. He quickened his pace to run up to the gate guards.<p>

"Open the gate!"

"We need to check your identification-"

Kakashi didn't wait for the Chuunin to finish his sentence and slammed his body against the gate to open it himself. Just as the gate was partially often, the Yellow Flash ran through it.

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><p>The operation went on for several long hours, and only ended when all the medic-nins engaged in it were too exhausted to go on.<p>

The chief medic-nin told the anxiously waiting group that yes, the worse had passed but no, he would not be waking up anytime soon and she could not honestly tell them anything about the possible prognosis. His organs were severely damaged, and all his bones on the right side had been crushed – not fractured or broken, but crushed like a walnut ran over by a heavy cart. He also lost too much blood, and his right eye was not curable.

Kakashi, whose eye had been treated sometime during the operation despite his resistance, felt immensely guiltier at the last statement. What if he really had accepted Obito's 'present'? Then he would have been completely blind.

Just as they were about to go into the room to see Obito, they were halted by the impeding pair of footsteps. Mikoto, who was very obviously pregnant, and Itachi ran toward them.

"What happened, Minato-san? We heard from the guards that Obito-kun seemed badly hurt. Is he okay? Where is he?"

"Obito was injured in action. He is stabilized, so we were going to see him just now. You may go with us, but maybe it's not the best idea to have the young one in-"

"I'm going to see Nii-san!" Itachi very uncharacteristically cut off Minato's words. There was no way he would be denied access to his badly hurt nii-san. He wanted to make sure he was okay, that he would soon be out of hospital and tell him a story, make a joke, play tag, or teach how to jump really high…. He wouldn't mind the tedious taijitsu and ninjutsu practice his father had been imposing on him as long as he had his nii-san nearby to cheer him on.

Mikoto picked her son up and followed Minato and his remaining students into the room. She immediately gasped when she laid her eyes on the battered teenager. He was cleaned and wrapped in bandage literally from head to toe, but his deformity was clearly seen. She quickly tried to cover Itachi's eyes, worried the sight of his beloved nii-san so deformed and hurt would upset the child. However, Itachi wriggled himself free from her grasp, jumped onto the floor, and toddled to the bedside.

Itachi couldn't believe his eyes. His nii-san was lying still, too still – he was never that still even in his sleep. The blood seeping out made grim-looking blotches on the bandages.

"Why is he hurt?" Itachi whispered, unable to take his eyes off his nii-san. His chest hurt so much, he didn't know why, and he didn't care – all he knew was that Obito nii-san was hurt, so hurt that he couldn't even open his eyes and look at him. And that made his heart so ache.

"It's the war," Minato murmured, trying to comfort the child by patting his head gently. But it didn't work, because his hand was too big and he was definitely not his nii-san.

Itachi really, really hated war.

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><p>Obito was in and out of coma over the next three months. However, in none of his conscious states had he enough strength to move any of his body part or make noise to let the others know that he was alive, thinking, albeit incoherently, and generally okay.<p>

So he had to be content with listening to others murmur around him.

Actually, it would have been quite more interesting if the drug didn't make him too drowsy to understand anything most of the times.

He learned from a conversation between Rin and the chief medic-nin that he was heavily drugged because that was the only way to keep the intense pain at bay. Otherwise, the pain would be too much for the young Chunnin to bear. Obito inwardly agreed that getting knocked out by drug was way better than fainting from pain. Not that he enjoyed his current state.

He noticed that Itachi came at least once a week, sometimes accompanied by soft-spoken Mikoto-san or sometimes even by himself – how, Obito could not figure out. Surely no one would let the small child wander outside the compound by himself? Rin came by pretty often as she was a medic-nin and worked at the hospital when she was not away on missions. Sensei and Kushina-san came whenever they had time, and would always ruffle his hair – the only part of his body that was bandage-free – before leaving.

And Kakashi came practically every day.

Or, at least whenever he was in Konoha.

Obito soon grew used to suddenly coming to and realize that his friend was near. He usually murmured a series of "I'm sorry", "I now know what you meant that day", "It's all my fault", "I'm worse than trash" and again, "I'm sorry" before he finally took his leave.

At first the Uchiha was surprised and touched that Kakashi, _the_ Hatake Kakashi, was apologizing to him.

But after a month of 'I'm sorry's, Obito simply had had enough.

One day – night, evening, afternoon, dawn, who knows – Obito woke up to the now-usual rambling of Baka-Kakashi's apologies. He inwardly groaned. He never thought his stoic teammate could be this vocal and persistent with an _apology_, of all things. Then he suddenly realized that he felt more coherent and strong than he had ever felt since the accident. He tried opening his mouth, and did a little victory dance inside his head when his mouth, albeit slowly, obeyed.

"Obito, I'm really–"

"S-say the s-word, a-and I-I'll kick y-your a-ass…."

There. He finally said what he had been longing to say for over a month. He could just imagine Kakashi opening his usually half-lidded eyes widely in shock and mentally giggled. Ah, the joy of speech. He really wished he had more strength, but he could do nothing as his consciousness slowly slipped away again.

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><p>Kakashi must have told what had happened to others, as Obito, much to his pleasure, soon found people started talking and telling stories to him whenever they visited instead of quietly conversing among themselves. Really, it was a welcoming change and a good way to keep in touch with the outside world.<p>

"Nii-san, Mother said I'm going to be a big brother soon. I want a brother, but I think I'd like sister too." Today, it was Itachi who came to relieve Obito of boredom when he became coherent, which was happening more and more frequently.

Obito suddenly felt small, warm fingers touching the side of his face.

"Nii-san, when are you going to wake up? I want you to wake up…."

Obito's heart cracked at that voice. From what little pieces of information he could sew together, Fugaku-sama had recently decided that his son was old enough for more intense training. No doubt it was taking a great emotional toll on the child… Obito desperately hoped that he would be able to be there for him, because he just knew that Fugaku-sama was not the type of person who would help a fallen child up. Rather, he would bellow at such a sign of weakness.

Obito heard a door crack open and light, almost bouncy footsteps that he came to associate with his sensei approach. As expected, it was his voice that spoke.

"Good afternoon, Itachi, Obito. I've got great news! Jiraya-sensei sent a frog summon to inform me that he had finally met Tsunade-sama. They should be here anytime this week, and then Tsunade-sama will fix you up in no time!"

"Really?" Itachi asked in a surprised voice, not caring that he was abandoning his usual rule of keep-silent-in-the-presence-of-not-so-close-people .

"Yup!"

Obito felt both embarrassed and awestruck at that one of the legendary Sanin was coming just to heal him, let alone that another Sanin went to look for her in his sensei's behalf.

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><p>.<p>

**Thank you for reading! I hope you could leave a review to tell me what you thought of the chapter :)**


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